


Semper Progredi

by Tired_College_Student_Writing



Series: The Many Misconceptions about Malcolm Bright [1]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Malcolm is A Mess, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 18:57:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21202460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tired_College_Student_Writing/pseuds/Tired_College_Student_Writing
Summary: Malcolm Bright wasn't a fighter.Malcolm Bright was a talker.Malcolm Bright would rather get stabbed then take down a target with force.





	Semper Progredi

“Easy,” A voice said next to JT as the detective’s head swam, “Let’s get you out of here, okay?” 

He felt his right arm being pulled over someone’s shoulder before he finally managed to turn his head to see Bright’s face set into a grim frown. 

“Malcolm?” He felt himself ask, mind sluggish as the profiler pulled him up, “Wha’ happ’n?” 

“Felix kinda dropped a crate on your head. Looks like you have a concussion, a few broken ribs probably and if the way you’re holding your left arm is any indication, a broken arm.” 

That’s right, JT’s mind was catching up. Ryan Felix, the perfect fit for Bright’s profile for the murder of Eric Adams, and an apparent gun smuggler as they had found out once breaking into the warehouse. Bright had said that there was something the Romanian businessman had been hiding from them, a deal that Adams had tried to blow the whistle on that got him killed for his troubles, but they didn’t think it would be anything of this magnitude, making them sorely unprepared to deal with what was happening. 

“Gotta call back up,” His voice was a little less slurred now as Malcolm led him through the maze of crates. 

“Gil and Dani are on it. We were mostly worried about you, buddy,” the smaller man reassured, “They chased after him after I said I’d get you out” 

JT just hummed as they continued only to freeze as they heard footsteps ahead of them. 

“Shit,” JT groaned as he and Malcolm press against a crate as they see Felix turn the corner, not thirty feet from them, looking around with his back to them aiming his gun at the slightest of noises. 

“Stay Here,” Bright whispered, unhooking JT’s arm from his shoulder. 

“Bright? Wait-” His hissed warning was ignored as Bright stalked forwards, silently ducking behind different crates as Felix caught his breath. 

Suddenly Malcolm lunged, from his hiding spot, launching himself at Felix without a word. Felix wiped around, finger twitching towards the trigger, but it was knocked out of his hand before he could shoot with a well-placed strike from Malcolm’s open hand, sending it flying down one of the numerous paths of crates. 

Without waiting for Felix to gather his bearing Malcolm struck out again, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down into Bright’s raised knee hard enough to make JT wince at the chocked gasp, before grabbing his arm and flipping him onto the ground arm twisted painfully behind him as Malcolm straddled his waist. 

JT felt himself blinking at the display that lasted less than ten seconds. 

There was no way that was Bright. 

Bright may be insane and weirdly fascinated by murder and make calls that no one else would in a million years, but he didn’t fight back. 

He talked people down, risked his own neck to stop JT from shooting a woman that had a shotgun pointed at his face. He was the one that distracted and gathered info, not the one that took down the criminals, before now JT would have wagered good money that the spoiled rich boy didn’t even know how to throw a decent punch, let alone willing to. 

“Can you pass me your handcuffs?” Malcolm asked, voices steely calm, eyes boring into Felix’s back like he wanted to burn a hole through his heart. 

He was silent until Bright’s eyes flickered up to his, eyebrows scrunching with concern, “You still with me JT?” 

“Yeah,” He breathed, “Yeah, No I’m…” 

Malcolm’s face twisted into a wince and suddenly he was avoiding the detective’s eyes. “Great,” he said, “Can you give me your handcuffs? And maybe radio Dani and Gil?”

JT numbly walked over to him, pulling his handcuffs off his belt to hand to the profiler, before backing off and bringing his radio up. 

“Felix is down,” He relayed as he faintly heard Malcolm reading Felix’s Miranda rights off to him, perfect cadence and wording as if he was reading it from a book, “We got him.” 

The evening was a blur after that. JT vaguely remembered more cop cars showing up as Felix was loaded into the back of Gil’s car, a swarm of officers going over the large mass of guns and other illegal products they found in the warehouse hidden in between the electronics and machinery that had been brought to the country legally, as he was loaded up in the back of the ambulance. 

He woke up hours later with the diagnosis of a severe concussion, three bruised ribs, one fractured, and a broken collar bone. The doctors decided to keep him for the entire day for observation, releasing him the morning after he woke up. Gil and Dani both stopped over throughout the day however to stop him from growing too bored. 

He wondered if he should be upset that Bright didn’t come to see him. 

Even after he was sent home he didn’t hear from Bright on his two-week leave. 

It wasn’t until he came back to work to find the team working on a new case did he get hit with the full force of Bright’s weirder than normal attitude. 

When he first entered the conference room, mid rambling lecture on the latest killer’s psyche to the warm welcomes of Gil and Dani, Bright froze like a deer in headlights, before pointily standing as far away from JT’s chair as he could manage, avoiding looking at him at all cost and only speaking to him when JT asked him a direct question. Even then his sentences were short and to the point, nothing like his normal excited babblings that tended to go off on a tangent before one of the others would pull him back. As soon as the meeting was done Malcolm was out of the room, leaving no time for JT to question his oddness, even as Dani turned to Gil for answers. 

The old man didn’t know either, or at the very least wasn’t forthcoming with what he knew.

It wasn’t until JT’s third day back was he able to corner the profiler. It was early evening, Gil and Dani were out following up a lead as Malcolm stayed back to go over some files they had managed to find earlier in the day. Without a second thought, JT quickly made up two drinks in the breakroom, coffee for himself and some floral tea Malcolm claimed to like when he confessed to the group that he didn’t drink coffee due to his meds, and headed into the conference room. 

“You’ve been avoiding me,” He accused lightly as Bright nearly jumped out of his seat. 

“Sorry,” Malcolm apologized quickly, eyes flicking ever so slightly with fear, “I just thought you might not want to see me after…” 

“You ain’t making any sense Bright,” JT countered, taking a seat next to him at the table, ignoring how the younger man flinched at the movement as he placed the cup of tea in front of him, “You got me out of the warehouse and took down Felix, why the hell does that translate to me not wanting to see you?” 

The younger man winced, hand twitching like it always did when he was stressed but he didn’t touch the offered drink, “Because I took down Felix.” 

“Didn’t we just cover that that’s a good thing?” 

Malcolm shook his head, “You looked nervous after took him down, you were stuttering more, eyes dilated even with your concussion, you acted robotic when giving me the handcuffs and  immediately backed away to call the others. You were scared, You were scared of me.” 

JT hummed, “Well I’ll admit that I was pretty startled by you going full-on Bruce Wayne on him, never seen you take down someone before now. If I’m honest I didn’t know you could take anyone down, you usually just stall them until one of us get there or you’ve talked them down. Honestly thought a rich boy like you would break his hand trying to throw a punch.” 

“I mean,” Malcolm still wouldn’t look at him, but the line of his shoulders was relaxing slightly, “I was a special agent in the FBI, I was top five in my class at Quantico.” 

“Only top five?” JT snorted, “What were you slacking off? Thought you could get by on good looks, pretty boy?” 

Instead of getting a laugh out of the profiler he just winced, “My uh… My teachers didn’t appreciate my unique outlook on the problems given. Always said I thought too much like my father.” 

JT flinched at that too. Didn’t think the FBI would pick on such low hanging fruit. Before he could comment Malcolm continued. 

“Same reason I try not to use the different forms of fighting they taught us at Quantico, and why I dropped out of  Jujutsu after the Surgeon arrest even though I really liked it. Any time I get slightly violent, even in self-defense, people act like I’m just a copy of my Father, like I’m going to go crazy and start killing people just like he did even though he never got physical with his victims,” Malcolm’s words were getting softer but more frantic as the explanation poured out of him, pushing his hands under his armpits as if trying to stop the tremors, “I know you don’t like me already, but I don’t want you to be afraid of me like that, so I figured limiting our interactions would-” 

“Bright,” JT cut him off, “I’ve seen you cut the hand off of a guy to save him from a bomb. I don’t think a little takedown is going to spook me more than that.”

Malcolm flinched so hard as if JT’s words had physically harmed him. He opened his mouth to say something, but JT didn’t let him.

“Nope, my turn to speak,” JT kept his voice stern but quiet, afraid to scare the profiler any more, “You’re insane on the best day, Bright. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t trust you a hundred percent yet, and you annoy the hell out of me, but you make good calls on cases and really try and help people in every way you can. So, and I’m only saying this once, You may be a major pain in my ass, but you’re a good man, Bright, and I seriously doubt you’re anything like your nutcase of a dad.” 

The look Malcolm gave him as his little speech came to a close could be defined as nothing short of hopeful, painfully making JT’s chest ache with the pure wistfulness aimed at him. 

“Oh don’t give me that look, just drink your stupid fancy tea before it gets cold,” JT said with a roll of his eyes. 

“It’s just  Butterfly Pea Flower Tea,” Malcolm countered, eyes finally regaining with the flickering light they had been missing since the warehouse, his hands only trembling slightly as they wrapped around the cup, “Nothing fancy about it!” 

“Bright, it’s bright blue and smells like perfume my gran would wear. It’s fancy.” 

JT hid his small smile in his coffee as his comment earned a giggle from Malcolm. 

Yeah, he didn’t trust the guy yet, but they’d come a long way from when Malcolm first showed up and JT knew that If he wasn’t careful he’d end up with Bright as a friend just as Dani had. 

And yet, as he watched the smile stretch Bright’s cheeks as the profiler started to verbally expand on his profile based on the files he’d read, JT couldn’t really bring himself to care. 

**Author's Note:**

> Semper Progredi- Always Forward


End file.
